Chapter 48: The First Kill

Fujin closed his eyes and calmed himself. He thought, 'Finally the time for my first kill.' He then took a deep breath and let it out. He made a few hand signs, and disappeared within the ground.

On the entrance, the 2 bandits were very bored of keeping watch. One complained to the other, "Why do we have to stand guard here? I wish we could just go and attack the village again and capture a few more girls." The second bandit laughed in a lecherous manner and replied, "Yeah, the girls we captured a few days back were so fun! I can't wait to get my han...."

However, his sentence was cut short. While he was talking, a sword appeared out of the ground and moved towards his waist, a sword enhanced by chakra flow. Before either of the bandits could notice, the sword cut through the waist of one bandit, and split him in two. He died without even knowing how! The remaining bandit panicked. His arm subconsciously moved towards his sword. However, before he could even grab his sword, his head was separated from his body.

After killing the two, Fujin again disappeared within the ground and entered the cave. The next two bandits were on guard in the space between the entrance to the hill, and another entrance which was located inside the hill. They were standing with their backs to the wall, and facing each other. Fujin moved through the hill, and pierced one bandit straight through his heart. The bandit opposite saw a sword coming out of the chest of the bandit in front of him. However, before he could shout for everyone's attention, a shuriken came straight at him and went through his throat, killing him on the spot.

Fujin moved through the ground again, and avoided the hole the bandits had dug. He had now entered the main hideout of the bandits. He stealthily observed through a wall. He saw the 3 more mini-caves that Hoka had mentioned. The place where he currently was, had 12 bandits there. The remaining 7 were in those 3 mini-caves, which made him think, 'Are they leaders or something?' He then observed those 12 bandits carefully. 4 were sleeping in a corner. 2 seemed to be working on something. One of them was looking at something intensely, whereas the other was sharpening his sword. The remaining 6 were drinking alcohol and playing cards.

Fujin moved through the ground towards the bandit who was sharpening his sword. He appeared behind him and chopped his head off. Even before his head could fall on the ground, Fujin moved towards the bandit who was looking at a map. He stabbed a sword straight through his heart and pulled it out quickly.

At this moment, the head and the sword of the earlier one dropped on the ground, creating a noise. This attracted the attention of the six who were drinking. Seeing the chopped head of their fellow bandit shocked and scared them. However, before they could make a move, Fujin had already flickered behind them. He quickly chopped two more heads off in one clean swing. He chopped another two beads off before they could even know what was happening. Only the last 2 bandits saw Fujin, however, they too were killed before they could do anything.

2 of the 6 bandits had alcohol bottles in their hand, which crashed on the ground. The noise woke up 2 of the 4 sleeping bandits. One ignored the noise and just changed his sleeping position. The other, however, got up to see what was happening. However, even before he could completely open his eyes, his head was slashed off by Fujin. Quickly, Fujin also stabbed his sword in the throat of the guy who turned and followed by stabbing the hearts of the remaining two.

Outside, Hoka asked Fujin, "You alright?" Fujin nodded and replied, "I didn't think the first kill would be so hard to adjust to." Hoka sighed and said, "I was warned repeatedly by my parents. There were a few ninjas, who after their first kill, couldn't even continue as ninjas." He then looked at the dead bodies and stated, "You are strong Fujin." Fujin smiled and said, "Thanks, but you should prepare yourself. Tomorrow, or the day after, it'll be your turn." Hoka nodded grimly.

It took Mieko around 25 minutes to fix the girl. Renjiro then carried her out. He then looked at the girl and said to his students, "Ensure that you become very strong. So that such a misfortune doesn't befall you." The genins could hear an uncharacteristic sadness in Renjiro's voice. They all replied with determination, "Yes sensei."

After leaving the cave, Renjiro made a clone. The clone grabbed the two dead bodies outside the cave, and tossed them inside. He then used Earth Wall jutsu to seal the entrance to the cave. Fujin asked, "Sensei, don't we have to give any proof to the village chief about completing the mission?" Renjiro shook his head and said, "Not on rank C missions that require elimination of bandits. Proof is required for assassination missions. If the heads of the bandits are given to the village, then more bandits will target the village in the future." Renjiro then said, "Let's go back to the village."

On the way, Fujin asked, "Sensei, have we eliminated all the bandits? What if there are any who weren't in this base?" Renjiro shook his head and said, "Doubtful. You can sense upto half a kilometre and still didn't find anyone. Even if there are one or two outside, seeing that their fellow bandits are dead, they won't cause anymore trouble for the village. Anyways, we were told that there were over 15 bandits, and we killed 22. That's more than enough for completing our mission."

However Mieko argued back, "But sensei, in that case, won't the criminals roam free? What if they were responsible for torturing this girl? What if they join some other bandits, and continue doing this?" Renjiro replied, "Our mission was to eliminate the bandit group harassing the village. Anything further isn't our responsibility." However Mieko wasn't convinced and she glared at her sensei. Renjiro sighed and said, "Just killing off an entire bandit group doesn't mean that more won't appear. In a couple of years, another group will be formed. This isn't something you or I can change. So searching for any bandit not in the hideout is pointless. If they join some other group, they'll die when we get the mission to eliminate that group."

Mieko was still unconvinced, but she stopped arguing. Fujin sighed internally thinking, 'No matter the world, the cruelty of humanity always exists. It's many times worse in this world than in my previous world. To torture and mutilate this girl for nothing but fun and amusement. I can't even imagine what they did to the other girls they kidnapped.'

He then glanced at Renjiro and thought, 'Konoha. It is reputed to be a very peace-loving village. Led by a Kage who propagates peace. Of course, anyone with little brains can see that Konoha is nowhere near as peace-loving as it claims to be. The mere existence of Root throws that claim in the trash. However, there's no denying that it still is more peace-loving than the other 4 Great Villages. Still it engages in such a practice. While it's true that finding other bandits will be a pain in the ass, it still won't be very difficult. Now these bandits will form a bandit group in the future and become its leaders. In the future, they'll again target this village, and the village will again send a mission to Konoha.

This cycle will ensure that this village will always need Konoha's help and will always feel indebted to Konoha. Similarly, every village in the Land of Fire will feel indebted to Konoha. Thus, a pressure will be maintained on the Daimyo to keep supporting and perhaps funding Konoha. Such a simple way to maintain influence. It doesn't cost Konoha anything, but costs dozens of lives to each of these villages. Sigh, if the most peace-loving village is so brutal and cruel, I wonder what a cruel village will be.'

He then let a breath of air out and thought, 'Well whatever, it doesn't exactly concern me.'